A foot injury meant Grace Mouat missed several previews for Cinderella, yet go to the ball she shall – albeit wearing a supportive walking boot rather than a pair of glass slippers. Mind you, who cares about fabulous footwear with performances like these? Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical combines rapturous numbers including Impossible (“Such fol-de-rol and fiddledy dee of course is!”) with the crotchety comedy of Stepsisters’ Lament and honeyed ballads. They’re delivered with verve by a young cast blending earnest sweetness with frothy mischief.
It’s taken almost 10 years for this Broadway version to reach Europe in a fully staged production. Unveiled in 2013, it took songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1957 made-for-TV musical, which starred Julie Andrews, and added a new book by Douglas Carter Beane. It’s a coup for Joseph Houston and William Whelton’s pint-sized Hope Mill to be presenting such a premiere but their theatre always punches above its weight. This is a Broadway musical that looks snug, rather than squeezed, on a more modest stage.
